The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1887-08-21
Tho Russians Among the Clouds.

Tho Russians have fairly established them
selves on one Of the plateaus OF the Pamir
that greatest protuberance OF the world,
which the Chinese said Thousand years ago
was midway between heaven and earth.
and which the natives call The Roof of the
World" Twenty years ago about all we knew
OF the Pamir was contained In single chapter
OF MARCO PoLo's travels. The remarkable
facts presented In this chapter were cited for
many years as specimens OF the fables spun
by this much discredited writer. In the his
tory OF discovery no early writer has been 80
brilliantly sustained by modern researches
as MARCO Polo has been by the Russian ex-
plorers who have overrun the Painir In all
directions, and have found that his picture Is
almost Photographic In Its accuracy.
Polo said that the herdsmen on tho Pamir
made fences OF the enormous horns Of wild
mountain sheep to enclose their cattle at
night. Tho Russians have found these horns
nearly five feet in length. and man could
not lift a pair Of them. Polo asserted that
on these lofty table lands he could not make
his fire burn brightly or give out much heat,
and the same phenomenon. due to the rarefi-
cation Of the air, has been observed by all
recent Pamir travellers. He said these plains
afforded the finest pasture in the world, and
that lean beast would fatten there in ten
days. A recent writer says: Tho grass Of
the Pamir is 80 rich that sorry horse Is
here brought into good condition In less
than twenty days"
These plains are diversified by low ridges,
and hero and there lofty mountain with
thn
mits Of the Himalayas. But from tho plain
where the traveller sees them they do not
appear to be higher than our own Mount
Washington, for they rest upon plateaus
that are from 10000 to 10000 feet high. and
whose mean elevation above the sea ia more
than twice that Of the top OF Mount Wash
ington. This Is the reason that the noun
tains OF the Pamir and Of Its esstern extern
sion, that walls in Tibet on the north, are
not particularly impressive In appearance.
though they are among tho Hottest submits
OF the world.
1t is Just below the Hottest OF these Pamir
plateaus. near Lake Sarakul, that the Rus
SLAMS are building environments for their
troops and feeding their horses on the sue
culent grasses that Polo described. Why
IHey nave lnVducu tueoo
where no crops can ripen and no vegetation
except grass aourishes, Is mystery that
time will doubtless make clear. We only
know that there they are within $50 miles Of
the Indian frontier, and that almost at their
feet is the Afghan State OF Badakhshan,
which is more nearly allied in sympathy and
|. interest tn the Russian dependency Of Box
hara than to England's protege, tho Ameer.
The passages Of tho Alps by HANNIBAL
and NAPOLEON are famous in the history
Of military exploits; but no commander
has ever led his troops to such enormous
heights as those which the soldiers of the
Gar now occupy. Tradition says that
the great Aryan invasion that peopled
Europe started from these Pamir heights,
following westward the classic Oxus and
Ja1artes. at whose fountain heads the Rus
SLAMS now water their horses 1t would thus
appear that the lusty descendants Of these
Aryan forefathers, bent on reconquering the
East from which they sprung, have reached
at last the great distributing point from
which their ancient progenitors passed with
their herds into the low-lying west, or south
ward into the valleys OF India